G'day from Sydney

[Musashin]

Hi all,

I experimented with distilling around a year ago, and lurked around on these forums for a while before throwing some molasses in a pot still.
I made around 5 batches, results were however quite disappointing. Came out at 75% which is apparently quite good for a pot still, but with terrible flavour which I couldn't get out even by ageing in wood chips and spicing for a few months. Definitely couldn't drink it straight.
Not sure what caused the off flavour, nothing like I've ever tasted before. Definitely wasn't contamination, I cleaned religiously and never saw signs of mould. I never did pack the column though, so maybe it was that.

I recently got the urge to give it another crack. So I'm drafting up some plans for a bigger and better "boka" reflux still. I have some blueprints half drawn but still need to do a little homework before I get a final version.
I'm a little confused on how the plate that pools up alcohol before it heads out the tap is supposed to function. As I understand, water is heavier than alcohol, so I would think that the bottom of that little pool would mostly be water with alcohol dripping down on top of it then running back into the "tank". Thus lowering the purity of the final product - not increasing it. Obviously I am wrong about this, but I'm not sure why?

Anyway, this forum seems like a nice place, so this time around I don't plan to lurk in the shadows. I tend to procrastinate and take more time than I should finishing these kinds of projects (currently hunting around scrap yards for a length of >2" copper tube that doesn't break the bank), but I'm sure I'll get up to speed with the technical side relatively quickly.

Cheers :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[tipsy]

Welcome

Came out at 75% which is apparently quite good for a pot still, but with terrible flavour which I couldn't get out even by ageing in wood chips and spicing for a few months. Definitely couldn't drink it straight.

How many times did you run it through the pot?

I recently got the urge to give it another crack. So I'm drafting up some plans for a bigger and better "boka" reflux still. I have some blueprints half drawn but still need to do a little homework before I get a final version.
I'm a little confused on how the plate that pools up alcohol before it heads out the tap is supposed to function. As I understand, water is heavier than alcohol, so I would think that the bottom of that little pool would mostly be water with alcohol dripping down on top of it then running back into the "tank". Thus lowering the purity of the final product - not increasing it. Obviously I am wrong about this, but I'm not sure why?

The "water" will be in your boiler, lots of good reading in the newbies area

[Musashin]

Welcome

Thanks :-)

How many times did you run it through the pot?

Just once, slow run though - one drop/sec. Maybe I should have run it twice, was kind of worried about overcomplicating things though as it was my first few runs. :razz:

The "water" will be in your boiler, lots of good reading in the newbies area

I get that, but some will evaporate with the alcohol before hitting the condenser at the top of the column, and settling back in the pool, right? Thus the heavier water would be at the bottom of the pool. Perhaps I am simply overthinking this.

[warramungas]

Alcohol is miscible in water and form a solution. It should be a concentrated solution of alcohol as the lighter fraction pushes the water to the bottom of the column. Its not like oil sitting on top of water.

[Zak Griffin]

Welcome mate. All the information you need is found here :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Musashin]

Alcohol is miscible in water and form a solution. It should be a concentrated solution of alcohol as the lighter fraction pushes the water to the bottom of the column. Its not like oil sitting on top of water.

That makes perfect sense, thanks! :-D

[bluc]

Welcome :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[rumdidlydum]

Welcome mate :handgestures-thumbupleft: Enjoy the forum

[Kenster]

Welcome bud... plenty of Bok builds on this site...may help with your quest, no need to re invent the wheel. BTW... the slant plate is, in my opinion, trickier to make up, the "cup" style is simple and very effective. I use that type and was a sinch to make and very happy with its performance. Also, whilst at the scrappie, go 3'' if you can... read up about column sizes...worth the exercise..

[Musashin]

Thanks fellas :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Kenster, I figured the bigger the column diameter the better. Good call on the cup style - I had come across a few threads yesterday where they were used, and they look promising.

Also agree on diameter - 2" seems to be generally recommended but that seems quite small to me. I guess the advantage of 2" is it will clamp easily onto my beer keg. I was looking at up to 4" on eBay at work yesterday afternoon, the prices are unbelievable though. I also think it would be pretty unlikely that a scrap yard has a meter or more of that lying around, but I'll try my luck.
I also considered buying a sheet of copper and riveting/brazing it into a tube for the column, but I'm not too sure if that's worth the effort. Wouldn't look very pretty either.

I'm heading out on a hunting trip this Saturday, so I'll be driving into quite a few scrap yards on the way. If I'm unlucky, I may have to bite the bullet and hide some money from my partner so I can buy a length on eBay. :-D

[scythe]

Scrap prices are based on weight, 4" is 8kg/m so take your wallet, but its still far cheaper than buying brand new copper pipe, last time i looked it was $300ish/m new.

[tipsy]

How many times did you run it through the pot?

Just once, slow run though - one drop/sec. Maybe I should have run it twice, was kind of worried about overcomplicating things though as it was my first few runs. :razz:

With a pot you really need to do a strip run then a spirit run, taking cuts along the way. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Musashin]

With a pot you really need to do a strip run then a spirit run, taking cuts along the way. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks tipsy, I might experiment with that while I'm building the new one.

Scrap prices are based on weight, 4" is 8kg/m so take your wallet, but its still far cheaper than buying brand new copper pipe, last time i looked it was $300ish/m new.

I found a good source on eBay, around AU$150 for a meter of 4" pipe delivered (I don't know how they ship it from the UK for that cheap..). Link below.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/108mm-Copper-Tu ... xJi8HG2nXQ

Problem being that nobody seems to do more than a meter of it. According to the source below, I need to have 1.2 to 1.5 meters of packing alone to get optimal separation, so this isn't long enough. I don't like my chances of finding a 4" reamer either.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36050

Anyway, I've been drafting up ideas of what I want to accomplish, I looked into the "double cup" style, but came up with something a little different. Basically just a copper T sitting on a plate. Should function the same way. Is there any reason this wouldn't work? Draft below.

[aussiebrewer]

Scrap prices are based on weight, 4" is 8kg/m so take your wallet, but its still far cheaper than buying brand new copper pipe, last time i looked it was $300ish/m new.

last time i picked up about 1.1m long piece of 4" it cost me $40 and i pay $10 per kilo so my meter was only 4kg (or under 4.5 as scales round). 8kg seems way to heavy to me especially since i can buy it for $80 new per meter (last i checked a little while back, may have changed) and i have had a few meters of 4" before that didnt weigh 8kg.

[sp0rk]

Anyway, I've been drafting up ideas of what I want to accomplish, I looked into the "double cup" style, but came up with something a little different. Basically just a copper T sitting on a plate. Should function the same way. Is there any reason this wouldn't work? Draft below.

This is exactly how I've just made my boka, I've only done a sacrificial run with it so far, but I think it works quite well
I brazed the tee into the plate, brazed the plate into a coupler
then slid the top section of the column in, soft soldered that, drilled a hole for the takeoff and soft soldered that on
then soft soldered a 10cm piece of pipe with an ezflange on the bottom into the couple to complete the head
If I were to do it over again, I'd just leave the coupler out and get the plate perfectly round, then braze the tee and plate into the head at the same time
Though I'm sure this would be harder to get everything lined up perfectly, it'd be much quicker, as with the coupler I had to solder a little, clean, solder a little more, clean, etc
See here for a few pics
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8944&start=20

[Musashin]

Anyway, I've been drafting up ideas of what I want to accomplish, I looked into the "double cup" style, but came up with something a little different. Basically just a copper T sitting on a plate. Should function the same way. Is there any reason this wouldn't work? Draft below.

This is exactly how I've just made my boka, I've only done a sacrificial run with it so far, but I think it works quite well
I brazed the tee into the plate, brazed the plate into a coupler
then slid the top section of the column in, soft soldered that, drilled a hole for the takeoff and soft soldered that on
then soft soldered a 10cm piece of pipe with an ezflange on the bottom into the couple to complete the head
If I were to do it over again, I'd just leave the coupler out and get the plate perfectly round, then braze the tee and plate into the head at the same time
Though I'm sure this would be harder to get everything lined up perfectly, it'd be much quicker, as with the coupler I had to solder a little, clean, solder a little more, clean, etc
See here for a few pics
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8944&start=20

I found that thread and had a peek before you edited the link in. Looks great, glad to know that T piece has been tried and tested.
Love the creative use of your manhole. :laughing-rolling:

I see how you've connected those together with tri-clamps (I am assuming easy flanges in between). That's a great idea, I didn't even think of that. I guess I can buy two meter-long lengths if I need to, and do the same thing to get the required amount of packing. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[sp0rk]

I think 2.5" or 3" will work just fine for your Boka, only downside being the tri clamp fittings aren't as common as 2" or 4" , but you can still get them
My 2.5" boka should pull off around 1.5L/hour at azeo by my calcs
Try your local scrappy like aussiebrewer said, I've gotten copper for around $8/kg from Lucky's at Teralba (just south of Newcastle)
I think I paid about $36 for 1.3m of 4"

[sp0rk]

I found that thread and had a peek before you edited the link in. Looks great, glad to know that T piece has been tried and tested.
Love the creative use of your manhole. :laughing-rolling:

I see how you've connected those together with tri-clamps (I am assuming easy flanges in between). That's a great idea, I didn't even think of that. I guess I can buy two meter-long lengths if I need to, and do the same thing to get the required amount of packing. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The bottom 500mm section is part of my pot still, so I figured I could just create another 1000mm section and that'll be more than enough packed length
Still need to create a packing retainer for the bottom, the reducer from 2.5" to 2" isn't working as well as I thought it would

[Musashin]

Ah I see. I was just going to solder a small pipe or two in as a stop for the packing. May not be strong enough though, over a meter filled with scrubbers is probably quite heavy, especially once they've got liquid on them.

Smaller pipe probably would work fine, but from what I understand going from 2" to 3" doubles the collection rate, and 4" doubles it again. If I get a good deal on smaller pipe I may do that.
But after watching my pot still churn away at one drip per second all day, the thought of 4" is pretty appealing. :think:

[sp0rk]

Ah I see. I was just going to solder a small pipe or two in as a stop for the packing. May not be strong enough though, over a meter filled with scrubbers is probably quite heavy, especially once they've got liquid on them.

Smaller pipe probably would work fine, but from what I understand going from 2" to 3" doubles the collection rate, and 4" doubles it again. If I get a good deal on smaller pipe I may do that.
But after watching my pot still churn away at one drip per second all day, the thought of 4" is pretty appealing. :think:

One drip per second is pretty slow for a pot still, I run mine at a thin toothpick stream
Soft solder will be more than strong enough to hold it, Bobby from Brew Hardware did a video of him swinging a keg around by some soft soldered fittings, nothing broke